Lighthouses & Hidden Treasures of Nova Scotia

Fifteen nights by hire car around Nova Scotia with a bias towards the places the standard itineraries drive past, and three nights in Halifax at the start rather than one.

Halifax gets a nature and whale watching tour, the Citadel above the town, Pier 21 where a million immigrants first set foot in Canada between 1928 and 1971, and a harbour ferry out to Georges Island and its tunnels. The Lighthouse Route then follows the South Shore, and the history there is better than the name suggests: for three centuries the rocky bays and islands of this coast made it a working base for pirates, privateers and smugglers, and later for rum runners during American prohibition. Peggy’s Cove supplies the much-photographed lighthouse, with Chester and Lunenburg beyond.

White Point comes next, sitting between the two halves of Kejimkujik, which is unusual in being both a national park and a National Historic Site. The inland section is a Mi’kmaw cultural landscape with petroglyphs and canoe routes used for thousands of years, and it is the only Dark Sky Preserve in the province. The seaside section has white sand beaches and improbably turquoise water.

Yarmouth closes the trip at the southwestern tip, reached through fishing villages, with the Cape Forchu lighthouse on its headland and a strongly Acadian region of brightly painted houses and disproportionately large churches. Canadian Affair include the flights, the hire car, the hotels and the named tours, with fuel, insurance and meals separate. The price is per person. Fifteen nights for one province seems generous until the coastline is driven, and the quieter southwest is the part most visitors never reach.